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Indiana Michigan Power Announces Central South Bend Substation Decision

April 27, 2017
Indiana Michigan Power (I&M), an operating unit of American Electric Power, plans to rebuild and upgrade the existing Colfax Substation

Indiana Michigan Power (I&M), an operating unit of American Electric Power, plans to rebuild and upgrade the existing Colfax Substation on Colfax Avenue as part of its Central South Bend Reliability Project.

All of the equipment at the existing Colfax substation will be removed, and an entirely new substation built at the same location. The new construction will allow I&M to place lines entering and exiting the station underground, reducing the number of poles and overhead wires at the location.

By rebuilding the Colfax substation, a new substation along Niles Avenue will no longer be necessary, and I&M does not intend to pursue plans to build there.

The final determination to build rebuild at the current Colfax location was reached following a comprehensive siting study, thorough evaluation of alternative sites, public input received during and following a public open house in February and evaluation of additional information from city and community representatives.

“Our goal in these complex projects is to identify a responsible solution by carefully balancing the needs to upgrade and maintain our electric infrastructure while minimizing impacts to our customers,” said Mark Robinson, Indiana Michigan Power Community Affairs Manager. “The project team evaluated alternatives and did its due diligence before determining to rebuild the Colfax Substation on the company’s property.”

Building a new substation is essential to ensure continued reliable electric service is delivered to South Bend area customers.

The Central South Bend project also includes replacing the Drewry Substation with the new Muessel Substation and constructing an approximately 2-mile, 69-kilovolt underground transmission line given the congested and constrained urban area. The new line creates a redundant supply of electricity to improve reliability and lessen impacts of outages. The final line route will be announced at a later date.

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